


My Mama Used To Tell Me

by LookIntoMyTelescope



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Damian is trans yo, Gen, Janis is blonde bc i read that hc on her being blonde in the plastics and RAN with it, Origin of the most legendary friendship in musical history, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 12:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15119174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LookIntoMyTelescope/pseuds/LookIntoMyTelescope
Summary: Damian is trans, but he's figuring it outtw//deadnames, misgendering, Regina's bitchinessWas going to be a one shot but my adhd said no





	My Mama Used To Tell Me

The first time Damian ever felt “right” was the opening night of his Art Camp’s production of Les Mis. As his mom tried to pin the curly wig onto his cap, he couldn’t avoid looking in the mirror, a habit he developed over the ten years he had been alive. Even though he looked like a dirty street urchin, he actually looked like a boy for once. The unruly wig had covered up his long dark hair and the baggy shirt and cravat hid his body. After fitting the casquette over his dirty blonde hair, his mom took a step back to admire her work. A smile cracked across her tired face as she saw how good of a job she had done.

“Wow, you really look like Gavroche, darling! You’re so...handsome!”   
Damian blushed at being called handsome, his “dirt” smudged face lit up as he got up to kiss his mom on the cheek before rushing off to show his director his makeup.  
He felt right, but it would take him a while to figure out why.

Damian was fourteen when he figured out that he was a boy. He had just been cast as Pinocchio in his camp’s really unfortunate production of Shrek: The Musical and every time he insisted that he was a “real boy”, he felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, but he got so confused. Why did he like being called a boy when he was a girl? That was pretty weird. Before he could devote any brain power to figuring out that emotional mess, his mom dropped a bomb on him: she had gotten a job offer from a Shakespeare company in Chicago, and he had to move with her.   
Despite that heavy news, he played the puppet without a hitch and had even gotten a plaque from the camp that was for “The Dame”, a nickname he had developed when he had to wear old makeup for a demonstration, causing him to resemble a pocket-sized Judi Dench. He couldn’t stop crying that closing night, not only because of the relief of not doing that show again but because of his move. He would have to start at a new school, and there would probably not be any cute boys at his new school, so he would just have to suffer.

The first day of school was really lonely for Damian, he had tried to sit with this group of freshman, two blondes, and a brunette, but the apparent leader of that group, a tall blonde in a pink bomber jacket, who wore an ungodly amount of rose gold jewelry, had turned him away, directing him to the “art freak” table across the room when she caught sight of his Hamilton shirt. 

“You can go sit there with that dyke Janis, we don’t let drama nerds or art freaks sit with us, sorry about it” She sneered insincerely, pointing to a table where a girl in a jean jacket sat alone, sketching away in an art book. Damian shrugged, thanked the girl for being such a bitch, before setting his lunch tray across from the “art freak” as that blonde girl had put so nicely. She bolted up at the sound, and she instantly glared at him.

“What do you want? Are you lost, or do you just want to make fun of the local space dyke?” She spat out, causing Damian to lean away from her until she was done being rude. She went back to her art after a while, and he sat down.

“I’m Dana, but my friends call me “Dame”. I tried to sit over there-”  
With this, he pointed towards the trio wearing pink.  
“-but the tall one was a huge bitch and she said I should sit over here. You also looked pretty lonely here, but if you wanna be rude, I can go-”  
Janis looked back up at him, her eyes softening a bit as she sat up.   
“No, it’s fine. People around here have just been the fucking worst. You’re the only person to even sit near me because girls are afraid to “catch the gay” and guys have no chance, so what’s the point of getting to know me? Whatever. I’m Janis. Janis Sarkisian.” She finished her rant with turning around her art book towards him. He leaned forward to get a good look and chuckled when he saw a sketch of a girl that strikingly resembled Blonde Bitch from the table of pink wearing girls. The sketch was funny because she had horns and a pitchfork, and was flanked by two impish looking caricatures of the other blonde girl and the brunette. He looked back up at the artistic blonde, but she was busy staring daggers at the group of girls. 

“Sheesh Jan, someone might think you hate their guts if you aren’t careful” Damian snorted, pointing down to the cartoon. She scoffed, a smirk breaking across her face.   
“You don’t know the half of it. That’s the nicest thing I’ve drawn of Regina, she’s the fucking worst of the worst, she ruined my life. All over a stupid crush I had.” She complained, her eyes misting up slightly as she messed with the ends of her hair. Damian took her trembling hand in his and squeezed it. 

“I’ve never been hurt by someone like that before, so I don’t know how to help, but I’m here. I’ll be your friend, and I can sass literally anyone, so I’ll make sure she can’t get within a yard of you without hearing from me.” He ducked down to meet her eye level and beamed at her. The blonde wiped her eyes as she squeezed his hand back.   
“Also sorry for the sudden handhold, don’t wanna give you the wrong idea. I like boys, and boys alone. Besides, even if I did date girls, I wouldn’t date one with such bad roots. Girl, are you growing it out, or are you due for bleach?”  
Janis chortled as she let go of his hand, nervously raking her fingers through her dark roots.

“Eh, I’m growing it out. My therapist said it would help if I did that, that it would be ‘symbolic of outgrowing Regina’s bullshit.’ Her words, not mine. But I kinda like the two tone look, it’s very punk”.

Damian raised an eyebrow, and Janis choked on her chocolate milk. The rest of the lunch period went quickly as the two new friends spoke avidly, barely noticing the lunch bell when it has rung. Damian took off his beanie and pulled his schedule out of it, much to the surprise of Janis.

“You aren’t a boy? I thought you were a super gay dude, but wow, you fooled me.”  
Damian chuckled along with the stunned artist, but he got unbelievably excited at Janis having thought he was a boy the whole lunch period.

“Yeah, but it would be really cool to be a guy, y’know? Like I would be so tall, and have stubble, and having a boyfriend in a gay way would be lit, right?” Damian laughed, tucking his hair back into his beanie as he spoke. Janis didn’t laugh along, and she just gave him a confused smile.

“I’ve never had that thought, but yeah, you would make a handsome guy.”  
Damian was elated, blushing as he walked with Janis to their shared French class.

French class was really weird. Madame Bordel greeted them in almost rapid-fire French before she made all of them pick French names to go by. All of their classmates had picked generic ones like Marie, Jacques, or Jean. One girl had picked the name Cosette, which made Damian snort, holding in his laughter. Mdme. Bordel turned to him, asking him to pick a name since he thought the last one was so hilarious. 

“Eponine?”

“Non, monsieur. Un nom masculin, Sil vou plait?”  
Not understanding her, Damian kept trying to make musical theatre jokes to make “Cosette” laugh.

“Fantine?”  
The teacher shook her head.

“A masculine name, monsieur.”

Damian looked at her in disbelief, before he gave her a name instinctively.

“Gavroche, madame?” 

Madame Bordel nodded curtly before moving on to Janis, who just gave her name as “Janise”.  
This seemed to satisfy the teacher, and she went up to the board and began writing a list of common nouns. Janis pretended to take down notes, before passing back a note to Damian.

Does she think you’re a boy too? Why didn’t you correct her? 

Not sure, I just didn’t feel like it. It actually felt nice? Besides, I was picking those names to keep the joke going after that one girl picked Cosette as her name, I couldn’t resist

Why do those names sound familiar? Are they from something?

HOW HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF LES MIS? THIS IS A TRAVESTY!

I read Les Miserables dude chill. I just forgot about it. Why did you name yourself after that little kid that got his shit wrecked by soldiers?

Umm excuse me, he has a name. I played him like 4 years ago in theatre camp. 

I thought you would pick Enjolras, he’s the only guy ever compared to a teenage girl in the novel

Shut up.

Lol whatever Dame.

Pay attention, before Ms. Brothel herself notices we’re not.

Ms. Brothel? Dude you don’t have to do her dirty like that

Her name literally means brothel. I tried to teach myself a song from Les Mis in French and they refer to the prostitutes as les filles du bordel. 

Wow. That’s the gayest thing I’ve ever heard, maybe you are a gay man

Wym

Dude trans people exist you know

Damian looked up from the note and furrowed his eyebrows. He wasn’t trans. There was no way. Sure, he liked playing guy roles, but that’s because he had a lower range and didn’t feel like playing old women or villainesses. Sure, he liked being called a boy, but that doesn’t mean anything, or did it? This emotional mess could wait, so Damian just wrote down the common nouns quickly onto the note paper, so that Janis wouldn’t miss out on class. He had just passed the note when Madame Bordel had spoken up.

“Monsieur Gavroche, Madame Janise, do you have anything to read out to the class, since you’re so engrossed in talking to each other?”  
Janis froze in fear, but Damian unfolded the note and gave a summary to Ms. Brothel.

“Ms. Bordel, we were just talking about our choices in French names and particularly my choice, because it’s the same name as a character in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, and then we discussed the usefulness of figuring out pronunciation through learning how to say character and place names in the novel. I hope that’s okay,” Damian lied with a sickly sweet smile.

“More than okay, Monsieur. I encourage the whole class to consume French media to help with their pronunciation. I’m glad you and Janise are ahead of the curve, good job.”

Janis looked back at him, her eyes wide and mouth agape in pleasant shock. Damian winked at her as he passed the note to her. This year was going to be a great one.

**Author's Note:**

> Go hit me up @esmesqualorfetishist on tumblr to give me more fanfic ideas, and please comment and give kudos to get chapters faster!


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